Elliot Alderson
|status = Alive |first appearance = |last appearance = |played by = Rami Malek}} Elliot Alderson is a cybersecurity engineer and vigilante hacker who lives in New York City. Elliot suffers from anxiety, depression, insomnia and mania. He is played by Rami Malek. Elliot's internal life is revealed via voice-overs that provide insight into his mental state, his opinions of the people he encounters and the activity around him. These dialogues with he audience are designed to help us interpret Elliot's world, but given his mental illness, he is an unreliable narrator, leaving us unsure whether what he tells us we're seeing is actually what is happening. Typical of this is Elliot's hearing everyone around him refer to E Corp as Evil Corp, reflecting his own opinion of the conglomerate. Background Although not much is known about his childhood, Elliot describes his relationship with his father to be a very positive one. He tells Mr. Robot that his father was the only one he could talk to. His father died of leukemia, leaving him in the care of his mother. He did not have a good relationship with his mother, who was somewhat abusive towards Elliot as a child. Darlene is Elliot's sister, although he does not always remember that she is. Elliot gets a job at Allsafe Cybersecurity thanks to his childhood friend, Angela Moss. He has proven himself to be knowledgeable and proficient, and has gained the trust of his superiors. Though he likes most of the people he works with, he must protect large corporations like Evil Corp, which he deeply resents. Much of Elliot's anger is focused on E Corp, to the degree that whenever he hears or sees the name of the corporation's name he mentally translates it to "Evil Corp", which is the derogatory name he has assigned to it. When he is not working, much of Elliot's time is devoted to white-hat hacking. He stays up to date on forums and boards, and maintains contacts through the internet. He is skilled in information gathering and observation, and demonstrates skills in social engineering, which allow him to learn as much as possible about the people around him. He uses his skills to bring what he sees as justice to people who might otherwise escape the notice of law enforcement, as demonstrated by his confrontation with Ron, a prosperous coffee house owner who also runs a child-pornography website. He also uses his skills to help ordinary people who may have been wronged, such as when he hacked his therapist's boyfriend to protect her from his more violent tendencies. Personality Elliot is an introverted, socially awkward person. He suffers from anxiety, which makes it difficult for him to participate in social situations. Because of this anxiety, he is unable to bring himself to attend Angela's birthday party, much to her frustration. Despite this, he will at times try to overcome his fear. He confronts a coffee shop owner about the latter's illegal website in person in part to work on talking to people, but when he goes to the restaurant where Angela's birthday party is held and sees Angela with her boyfriend, he decides to leave. Additionally, he does not like to be touched. Elliot receives mandated therapy to help him deal with his anxiety, as well as his emotional issues. Though he tells Krista, his therapist, that he is taking his medication, there are moments when he questions whether his perceptions are accurate. He self-medicates with morphine, using suboxone to help with any withdrawal he may experience, but also uses recreational drugs such as Ecstasy. Although he has working relationships with some peers, his closest friend, Angela, is from childhood. Krista, his therapist, encourages him to connect with other people, but his anxiety generally prevents him from being comfortable in social situations. Despite this, he has an sexual relationship with Shayla, who eventually becomes his girlfriend. He is also able to connect with the fsociety group, and to interact with people related to his hacks. Elliot's Diagnosis Elliot's therapy sessions and his own voice-over provide insights into his diagnosis. Elliot acknowledges his own social anxiety disorder, and later, his extreme sadness, indicative of his clinical depression. Krista notes his delusions in one session, checking to be sure he has taken his medication. His actions, such as his hyper-vigilant awareness of those around him, suggest paranoia as well, a syndrome that frequently accompanies or causes delusions. * Social anxiety disorder: intense fear of social situations. This may affect an individual's ability to function in one or more aspects of their lives. In Elliot's case, his job demands minimal social interaction, and allows him to work in a cubicle, reducing social contact, but he is unable to join largely social activities, such as Angela's birthday. His anxiety lightens during the short period he is with Shayla, making it possible for him to attend the dinner at Gideon's loft. * Depression: Pervasive low mood, sadness, and/or loss of interest in or enjoyment of normal activities, often accompanied by low self-esteem. Depression can be treated by medication and therapy, such as with Elliot. * Paranoia: Thoughts influenced by fear or anxiety. Paranoia may accompany or trigger delusions. * Delusions: Delusions are strongly held systems of beliefs or interpretations of reality that differs from reality, despite evidence to counter them. Elliot's belief system includes the feeling he is being followed, and the need to rescue individuals from people he feels are hurting others, such as in the case of Krista's boyfriend or Ron, the coffee shop owner. Unlike hallucinations, where the individual sees what is not there, delusions are about how the individual interprets reality. Through much of the series, we see reality through Elliot's filter, and thereby his delusions. In , the audience sees the reality that Elliot is interpreting for the first time. Trivia * Writer Sam Esmail gave Elliot his own birthday, September 17. * Elliot's pet fish Qwerty is named after the American 'qwerty' keyboard layout. * In the original script of pilot episode, in Elliot's opening monologue, he claims that he believes in aliens.http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/Mr_Robot_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf * He is made to see Krista because he was arrested for financial hacking.http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot/cast/elliot-alderson * Elliot doesn't have any social media profiles including Facebook. * He uses GNU/Linux and uses the Gnome desktop environment. * When Elliot deletes his number from Michael Hansen's phone, we see it is (212) 555-0179. * Elliot's laptop has a piece of tape over his webcam, to prevent other hackers from spying on him, much like what happens to Ollie after being hacked by The Dark Army. References See also *Rami Malek Category:Characters Category:Major characters Category:Season 1 characters Category:Season 2 characters Category:Hackers Category:Fsociety Category:Allsafe Cybersecurity